It’s hard to find the get-up-and-go on such hot days like this one. I made 3 calls to have guys come out to give me estimates on a whole house humidifier for my furnace.

I made my own German potato salad, which uses vinegar and chicken broth instead of mayo. It also has chopped up hard-boiled eggs. I cooked up the entire (5 lb?) bag of organic potatoes for it becus organic potatoes tend to go bad on me very quickly and I hate wasting the money.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch at mom’s. I brought some extra potato salad in a cooler with me. Spent some time there catching up with her and browsing her studio since I get to pick out some art for my upcoming birthday. I discovered an oil painting that looked VAGUELY familiar, an impressionistic painting of 3 sailboats on the water. I liked it a lot. She informed me it was “very old,” and then when I became curious, she went to see if she could find a record of when she did it. She discovered that she’d painted it early in her career, in the “60s/70s.” Nothing more precise than that. It could well have been painted when I was just a child. Knowing that made me want to own it even more. Who knows? It’s possible we may have a family photo somewhere with that painting in the background. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Before I’d left for my mother’s, I decided I was going to put the cats in the basement with their food and water. So I was able to turn all the fans off, but I had to put 2 44 lb. boxes of cat litter in in front of the cat door at the top of the basement stairs to keep Luther from scratching his way out. He tried, but when I chastised him several times, he seemed to settle down, and when I came home I was happy to see he’d found a spot on a blanket on a lawn chair down there.

I may have to put them down there again tomorrow for the afternoon, when it’s been hottest. I don’t think the heat is good for them, especially Luther with his long fur. I’ve tried cutting it a few times, but he always hates this and hisses at me. It doesn’t hurt him at all but he’s so fussy about things like that.
I knew I had to start mowing the lawn soon so I went out there to sit and contemplate the growing grass. I really had a hard time getting started because it was still too darn hot at 6 pm. Indoor house temp was 83 degrees, to give you an idea. But, I did finally begin the mowing and will have to continue it 2 more nights to finish front and back.

Oh, I finished my spending on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the holy grail of cards. Now i can just focus on my bankamericard travel card for a $500 spend; have also racked up $122. Easy peasy.